Lattice-mismatched semiconductor structures with reduced dislocation defect densities and related methods for device fabrication

ABSTRACT

Fabrication of monolithic lattice-mismatched semiconductor heterostructures with limited area regions having upper portions substantially exhausted of threading dislocations, as well as fabrication of semiconductor devices based on such lattice-mismatched heterostructures.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to lattice-mismatched semiconductorheterostructures and, more specifically, to the selective channelmaterial regrowth in connection with the integration of dissimilarsemiconductor materials.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The increasing operating speeds and computing power of microelectronicdevices have recently given rise to the need for an increase in thecomplexity and functionality of the semiconductor structures from whichthat these devices are fabricated. Hetero-integration of dissimilarsemiconductor materials, for example, III-V materials, such as galliumarsenide, gallium nitride, indium aluminum arsenide, and/or germaniumwith silicon or silicon-germanium substrate, is an attractive path toincreasing the functionality and performance of the CMOS platform. Inparticular, heteroepitaxial growth can be used to fabricate many modernsemiconductor devices where lattice-matched substrates are notcommercially available or to potentially achieve monolithic integrationwith silicon microelectronics. Performance and, ultimately, the utilityof devices fabricated using a combination of dissimilar semiconductormaterials, however, depends on the quality of the resulting structure.Specifically, a low level of dislocation defects is important in a widevariety of semiconductor devices and processes, because dislocationdefects partition an otherwise monolithic crystal structure andintroduce unwanted and abrupt changes in electrical and opticalproperties, which, in turn, results in poor material quality and limitedperformance. In addition, the threading dislocation segments can degradephysical properties of the device material and can lead to prematuredevice failure.

As mentioned above, dislocation defects typically arise in efforts toepitaxially grow one kind of crystalline material on a substrate of adifferent kind of material—often referred to as “heterostructure”—due todifferent crystalline lattice sizes of the two materials. This latticemismatch between the starting substrate and subsequent layer(s) createsstress during material deposition that generates dislocation defects inthe semiconductor structure.

Misfit dislocations form at the mismatched interface to relieve themisfit strain. Many misfit dislocations have vertical components, termed“threading segments,” which terminate at the surface. These threadingsegments continue through all semiconductor layers subsequently added tothe heterostructure. In addition, dislocation defects can arise in theepitaxial growth of the same material as the underlying substrate wherethe substrate itself contains dislocations. Some of the dislocationsreplicate as threading dislocations in the epitaxially grown material.Other kinds of dislocation defects include stacking faults, twinboundaries, and anti-phase boundaries. Such dislocations in the activeregions of semiconductor devices, such as diodes, lasers andtransistors, may significantly degrade performance.

To minimize formation of dislocations and associated performance issues,many semiconductor heterostructure devices known in the art have beenlimited to semiconductor layers that have very closely—e.g. within0.1%—lattice-matched crystal structures. In such devices a thin layer isepitaxially grown on a mildly lattice-mismatched substrate. As Long asthe thickness of the epitaxial layer is kept below a critical thicknessfor defect formation, the substrate acts as a template for growth of theepitaxial layer, which elastically conforms to the substrate template.While lattice matching and near matching eliminate dislocations in anumber of structures, there are relatively few lattice-matched systemswith large energy band offsets, limiting the design options for newdevices.

Accordingly, there is considerable interest in heterostructure devicesinvolving greater epitaxial layer thickness and greater lattice misfitthan known approaches would allow. For example, it has long beenrecognized that gallium arsenide grown on silicon substrates wouldpermit a variety of new optoelectronic devices marrying the electronicprocessing technology of silicon VLSI circuits with the opticalcomponent technology available in gallium arsenide. See, for example,Choi et al, “Monolithic Integration of Si MOSFETs and GaAs MESFETs”,IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. EDL-7, No. 4, April 1986. Highlyadvantageous results of such a combination include high-speed galliumarsenide circuits combined with complex silicon VLSI circuits, andgallium arsenide optoelectronic interface units to replace wireinterconnects between silicon VLSI circuits. Progress has been made inintegrating gallium arsenide and silicon devices. See, for example, Choiet al, “Monolithic Integration of GaAs/ALGaAs Double-HeterostructureLED's and Si MOSFETs” IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. EDL-7, No. 9,September 1986; Shichijo et al, “Co-Integration of GaAs MESFET and SiCMOS Circuits”, IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 9, No. 9, September1988. However, despite the widely recognized potential advantages ofsuch combined structures and substantial efforts to develop them, theirpractical utility has been limited by high defect densities in galliumarsenide layers grown on silicon substrates. See, for example, Choi etal, “Monolithic Integration of GaAs/ALGaAs LED and Si Driver Circuit”,IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 9, No. 10, October 1988 (p. 513).Thus, while basic techniques are known for integrating gallium arsenideand silicon devices, there exists a need for producing gallium arsenidelayers having a low density of dislocation defects.

To control dislocation densities in highly-mismatched deposited layers,there are three known techniques: wafer bonding of dissimilar materials,substrate patterning, and composition grading. Bonding of two differentsemiconductors may yield satisfactory material quality. Due to thelimited availability and high cost of large size Ge or III-V wafers,however, the approach may not be practical.

Techniques involving substrate patterning exploit the fact that thethreading dislocations are constrained by geometry, i.e. that adislocation cannot end in a crystal. If the free edge is brought closerto another free edge by patterning the substrate into smaller growthareas, then it is possible to reduce threading dislocation densities. Inthe past, a combination of substrate patterning and epitaxial lateralovergrowth (“ELO”) techniques was demonstrated to greatly reduce defectdensities in gallium nitride device, leading to fabrication of laserdiodes with extended lifetimes. This process substantially eliminatesdefects in ELO regions but highly defective seed windows remain,necessitating repetition of the lithography and epitaxial steps toeliminate all defects. In a similar approach, pendeo-epitaxy eliminatessubstantially all defects in the epitaxial region proximate to thesubstrate but requires one lithography and two epitaxial growth steps.Furthermore, both techniques require the increased lateral growth rateof gallium nitride, which has not been demonstrated in allheteroepitaxial systems. Thus, a general defect-reduction processutilizing a minimum of lithography/epitaxy steps that does not rely onincreased lateral growth rates would be advantageous both to reduceprocess complexity and facilitate applicability to various materialssystems.

Another known technique termed “epitaxial necking” was demonstrated inconnection with fabricating a Ge-on-Si heterostructure by Langdo et al.in “High Quality Ge on Si by Epitaxial Necking,” Applied PhysicsLetters, Vol. 76, No. 25, April 2000. This approach offers processsimplicity by utilizing a combination of selective epitaxial growth anddefect crystallography to force defects to the sidewall of the openingin the patterning mask, without relying on increased lateral growthrates. Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, in the (111)<110>diamond cubic slip system, misfit dislocations lie along <110>directions in the (100) growth plane while the threading segments riseup on (111) planes in <110> directions. Threading segments in <110>directions on the (111) plane propagate at a 45° angle to the underlyingSi (100) substrate surface. Thus, if the aspect ratio of the holes inthe patterning mask is greater than 1, threading segments will beblocked by the mask sidewall, resulting in low-defect top Ge “nodules”formed directly on Si. One important limitation of epitaxial necking,however, is the size of the area to which it applies. In general, asdiscussed in more detail below, the lateral dimensions (designated as lin FIG. 1A) in both dimensions have to be relatively small in order forthe dislocations to terminate at sidewalls.

Thus, there is a need in the art for versatile and efficient methods offabricating semiconductor heterostructures that would constraindislocation defects in a variety of lattice-mismatched materialssystems. There is also a need in the art for semiconductor devicesutilizing a combination of integrated lattice-mismatched materials withreduced levels of dislocation defects for improved functionality andperformance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to providesemiconductor heterostructures with significantly minimized interfacedefects, and methods for their fabrication, that overcome thelimitations of known techniques. In contrast with the prior art approachof minimizing dislocation defects by limiting misfit epitaxial layers toless than their critical thicknesses for elastic conformation to thesubstrate, in its various embodiments, the present invention utilizesgreater thicknesses and Limited lateral areas of component semiconductorlayers to produce limited-area regions having upper portionssubstantially exhausted of threading dislocations and other dislocationdefects such as stacking faults, twin boundaries, or anti-phaseboundaries. As a result, the invention contemplates fabrication ofsemiconductor devices based on monolithic lattice-mismatchedheterostructures long sought in the art but heretofore impractical dueto dislocation defects.

In particular applications, the invention features semiconductorstructures of Ge or III-V devices integrated with a Si substrate, suchas, for example, an optoelectronic device including a gallium arsenidelayer disposed over a silicon wafer, as well as features methods ofproducing semiconductor structures that contemplate integrating Ge orIII-V materials on selected areas on a Si substrate.

In general, in one aspect, the invention is directed to a method offorming a semiconductor heterostructure. The method includes providing asubstrate that contains, or consists essentially of, a firstsemiconductor material, and then providing a dislocation-blocking maskover the substrate. The mask has an opening extending to the surface ofthe substrate and defined by at least one sidewall. At least a portionof the sidewall meets the surface of the substrate at an orientationangle to a selected crystallographic direction of the firstsemiconductor material. The method further includes depositing in theopening a regrowth layer that includes a second semiconductor material,such that the orientation angle causes threading dislocations in theregrowth layer to decrease in density with increasing distance from thesurface of the substrate. The dislocation-blocking mask may include adielectric material, such as, for example, silicon dioxide or siliconnitride.

Embodiments of this aspect of the invention include one or more of thefollowing features. An overgrowth layer that includes the secondsemiconductor material can be deposited over the regrowth layer and overat least a portion of the dislocation-blocking mask. At least at least aportion of the overgrowth layer can be crystallized. The regrowth layercan be planarized, for example, such that, following the planarizingstep, a planarized surface of regrowth layer is substantially co-planarwith a top surface of the dislocation-blocking mask. The planarizingstep may include chemical-mechanical polishing.

In addition, in various embodiments of the invention, the firstsemiconductor material is silicon or a silicon germanium alloy. Thesecond semiconductor material can include, or consist essentially of,either a group II, a group III, a group IV, a group V, or a group VIelement, or a combination thereof, for example, germanium, silicongermanium, gallium arsenide, aluminum antimonide, indium aluminumantimonide, indium antimonide, indium arsenide, indium phosphide, orgallium nitride. In some embodiments, the second semiconductor materialis compositionally graded.

In many embodiments of the invention, the selected crystallographicdirection of the first semiconductor material is aligned with at leastone direction of propagation of threading dislocations in the regrowthlayer. In certain versions of these embodiment, the orientation angleranges from about 30 to about 60 degrees, for example, is about 45degrees.

The surface of the substrate may have (100), (110), or (111)crystallographic orientation. In some embodiments, the selectedcrystallographic direction is substantially aligned with a <110>crystallographic direction of the first semiconductor material. In otherembodiments, the portion of the sidewall meets the surface of thesubstrate in substantial alignment with a <100> crystallographicdirection of the first semiconductor material.

In certain embodiments of this and other aspects of the invention, thefirst semiconductor material is non-polar, the second semiconductormaterial is polar, and the orientation angle causes anti-phaseboundaries in the regrowth layer to decrease in density with increasingdistance from the surface of the substrate. In some embodiments, thethreading dislocations terminate at the sidewall of the opening in thedislocation-blocking mask at or below a predetermined distance H fromthe surface of the substrate. In some versions of these embodiments, theopening in the dislocation-blocking mask has a variable width. In otherversions, the sidewall of the opening in the dislocation-blocking maskincludes a first portion disposed proximal to the surface of thesubstrate, and a second portion disposed above the first portion. Aheight of the first portion can be at least equal to the predetermineddistance H from the surface of the substrate. The first portion of thesidewall can be substantially parallel to the second portion. Also, insome versions, the second portion of the sidewall is flared outwardly.Further, in certain embodiments of this and other aspects of theinvention, the orientation angle causes stacking faults and/or twinboundaries in the regrowth layer to decrease in density with increasingdistance from the surface of the substrate.

Further yet, in certain embodiments of this and other aspects of theinvention, the sidewall of the opening in the dislocation-blocking maskhas a height at least equal to a predetermined distance H from thesurface of the substrate. In these embodiments, the opening issubstantially rectangular and has a predetermined width W that issmaller than a length L of the opening. For example, the width W of theopening can be less than about 500 nm, and the length L of the openingcan exceed each of W and H. In some versions of these embodiments, thesubstrate consists essentially of silicon and has a (100)crystallographic orientation, the orientation angle is about 45 degreesto the direction of propagation of defects in the regrowth layer, andthe predetermined distance H is at least W∫2. In other versions, thesubstrate consists essentially of silicon and has a (110)crystallographic orientation, the orientation angle is about 45 degrees,and the predetermined distance H is at least W∫6/3. In still otherversions, the substrate consists essentially of silicon and has a (111)crystallographic orientation, the orientation angle is about 45 degrees,and the predetermined distance H is at least 2 W.

In other embodiments of this aspect of the invention, the methodadditionally includes depositing a lattice-mismatched layer over atleast a portion of the substrate prior to providing thedislocation-blocking mask thereon. The lattice-mismatched layerpreferably includes a third semiconductor material and is at leastpartially relaxed. The lattice-mismatched layer can be planarized priorto providing the dislocation-blocking mask. The second semiconductormaterial and the third semiconductor material can be or include the samesemiconductor material.

In general, in another aspect, the invention features a method offorming a semiconductor heterostructure that begins with providing asubstrate including a first semiconductor material. The methodadditionally includes providing a dislocation-blocking mask over thesubstrate. The mask has an opening extending to the surface of thesubstrate and defined by at least one sidewall. At least a portion ofthe sidewall meets the surface of the substrate at an orientation angleto a selected crystallographic direction of the first semiconductormaterial. The method further includes the steps of depositing in theopening a regrowth layer that includes a second semiconductor materialand subjecting the regrowth layer to thermal cycling, thereby causingthreading dislocations to terminate at the sidewall of the opening inthe dislocation-blocking mask at or below a predetermined distance fromthe surface of the substrate.

In various embodiments of this and other aspects of the invention,threading dislocations (and/or other dislocation defects such asstacking faults, twin boundaries, or anti-phase boundaries) in theregrowth layer decrease in density with increasing distance from thesurface of the substrate. The first semiconductor material may include,or consist essentially of, silicon or a silicon germanium alloy. Thesecond semiconductor material may include, or consist essentially of, agroup II, a group III, a group IV, a group V, and/or a group VI element,and/or combinations thereof, for example, selected from the groupconsisting of germanium, silicon germanium, gallium arsenide, andgallium nitride. In some embodiments, the second semiconductor materialis compositionally graded.

Generally, in yet another aspect, the invention focuses on asemiconductor structure that includes a substrate and adislocation-blocking mask disposed over the substrate. The substrateincludes, or consists essentially of, a first semiconductor material,such as, for example, silicon or a silicon germanium alloy. Thedislocation-blocking mask may include a dielectric material, such as,for example, silicon dioxide or silicon nitride. The mask has an openingextending to the surface of the substrate and defined by at least onesidewall at least a portion of which meeting the surface of thesubstrate at an orientation angle to a selected crystallographicdirection of the first semiconductor material. A regrowth layercomprising a second semiconductor material is formed in the opening,such that the orientation angle causes threading dislocations and/orother dislocation defects such as stacking faults, twin boundaries, oranti-phase boundaries in the regrowth layer to decrease in density withincreasing distance from the surface of the substrate.

In various embodiments of this aspect of the invention, the threadingdislocations terminate at the sidewall of the opening in thedislocation-blocking mask at or below a predetermined distance H fromthe surface of the substrate. In some embodiments of this aspect of theinvention, the selected crystallographic direction of the firstsemiconductor material is aligned with at least one propagationdirection of threading dislocations in the regrowth layer. In certainversions of these embodiments, the orientation angle ranges from about30 to about 60 degrees, for example, is about 45 degrees.

The surface of the substrate may have (100), (110), or (111)crystallographic orientation. In some embodiments, the selectedcrystallographic direction is substantially aligned with a <110>crystallographic direction of the first semiconductor material. In otherembodiments, the portion of the sidewall meets the surface of thesubstrate in substantial alignment with a <100> crystallographicdirection of the first semiconductor material.

Also, certain embodiments of this aspect of the invention include anovergrowth layer disposed over the regrowth layer and over at least aportion of the dislocation-blocking mask, as well as alattice-mismatched layer disposed over at least a portion of thesubstrate underneath the dislocation-blocking mask. The overgrowth layerand/or the lattice-mismatched layer may include a second semiconductormaterial and may be at least partially relaxed.

Further, in still another aspect, the invention features a semiconductordevice formed over a substrate that includes a source region, a drainregion, and a channel region therebetween. The substrate includes, orconsists essentially of, a first semiconductor material, for example, asilicon. Also, a dislocation-blocking mask is disposed over thesubstrate. The mask has an opening extending to the surface of thesubstrate and is defined by at least one sidewall. The deviceadditionally includes a regrowth region formed in the opening. At leasta portion of the sidewall meets the surface of the substrate at anorientation angle to a selected crystallographic direction of the firstsemiconductor material, for example, about 45 degrees to the directionof propagation of threading dislocations in the regrowth region. Theregrowth region has a first portion disposed proximal to the surface ofthe substrate, where threading dislocations and/or other dislocationdefects such as stacking faults, twin boundaries, or anti-phaseboundaries in the regrowth region substantially terminate, and a secondportion disposed above the first portion and having the channel regionformed therein. The first portion of the regrowth region includes asecond semiconductor material and the second portion includes a thirdsemiconductor material. The second and third semiconductor materials maybe, or include, the same material.

In one embodiment, the semiconductor substrate includes a silicon wafer,an insulating layer disposed thereon, and a strained semiconductor layerdisposed on the insulating layer. The strained semiconductor layer mayinclude silicon or germanium. As used herein, the term “strain”encompasses uniaxial and biaxial strain, as well as tensile andcompressive strain. In another embodiment, the semiconductor substrateincludes a silicon wafer, a compositionally uniform relaxedSi_(1-x)Ge_(x) layer (where 0<x<1) deposited thereon, a strained siliconlayer deposited on the relaxed S_(1-x)Ge_(x) layer. A compositionallygraded Si_(1-x)Ge_(x) layer can be disposed between the compositionallyuniform Si_(1-x)Ge_(x) relaxed layer and the silicon wafer. Also, aninsulating layer can be disposed between the compositionally uniformrelaxed Si_(1-x)Ge_(x)) layer and the silicon wafer. In yet anotherembodiment, at least partially relaxed lattice-mismatched layer isdisposed between at least a portion of the substrate and thedislocation-blocking mask.

The second semiconductor material and/or the third semiconductormaterial can include, or consist essentially of, a group II, a groupIII, a group IV, a group V, and/or a group VI element, and/orcombinations thereof, for example, germanium, silicon germanium, galliumarsenide, gallium nitride, indium aluminum arsenide, indium galliumarsenide, indium gallium phosphide, aluminum antimonide, indium aluminumantimonide, indium antimonide, and/or indium phosphide. In someembodiments, the first portion of the regrowth region may includesilicon germanium and the second portion of the regrowth region mayinclude a layer of strained germanium or strained silicon germanium. Inother embodiments, the first portion of the regrowth region includesindium phosphide and the second portion of the regrowth region includesa layer of indium gallium arsenide disposed over a layer of indiumaluminum arsenide. In other embodiments, the first portion of theregrowth region may include indium aluminum antimonide and the secondportion of the regrowth region may include a layer of indium antimonide.

In various embodiments of the invention, the selected crystallographicdirection of the first semiconductor material is aligned with at leastone propagation direction of threading dislocations in the regrowthregion. Threading dislocations in the regrowth region may substantiallyterminate at the sidewall of the opening in the dislocation-blockingmask at or below a predetermined distance from the surface of thesubstrate. The dislocation-blocking mask may include a dielectricmaterial, for example, silicon dioxide or silicon nitride. In aparticular embodiment, the dislocation-blocking mask includes a siliconnitride layer disposed over a silicon dioxide layer.

In certain embodiments, the source region and the drain region of thedevice are epitaxially deposited over the dislocation-blocking mask; forexample, they may represent a structure epitaxially deposited over thedislocation-blocking mask proximal to the regrowth region followingformation thereof. In some versions of these embodiments, the structureincludes a first material forming a Schottky junction at the interfacewith the regrowth region. The structure may further include a secondmaterial, which may be strained, unstrained, or amorphous. A gateinsulator can be disposed over the regrowth region, and, in someembodiments, a silicon Layer having thickness ranging from about 5 Å toabout 15 Å is disposed between the gate insulator and the regrowthregion.

In general, in still another aspect, the invention features anintegrated circuit that includes a substrate and a dislocation-blockingmask disposed over the substrate. The mask has an opening extending tothe surface of the substrate and defined by at least one sidewall. Thesubstrate includes, or consists essentially of, a first semiconductormaterial, such as, for example, silicon. At least a portion of thesidewall meets the surface of the substrate at an orientation angle to aselected crystallographic direction of the first semiconductor material.The integrated circuit also includes a regrowth region formed in theopening. The regrowth region has a first portion disposed proximal tothe surface of the substrate, and threading dislocations and/or otherdislocation defects such as stacking faults, twin boundaries, oranti-phase boundaries in the regrowth region substantially terminate inthe first portion. The regrwoth layer also has a second portion disposedabove the first portion. The first and second portions include, orconsist essentially of, either different or the same semiconductormaterial(s). Further, a p-transistor is formed over a first area of thesemiconductor substrate and an n-transistor is formed over a second areaof the semiconductor substrate, each transistor has a channel throughthe second portion of the regrowth region. The transistors areinterconnected in a CMOS circuit.

In yet another aspect, the invention relates to a method of forming anon-planar FET. The method begins with providing a substrate thatincludes, or consists essentially of, a first semiconductor material,such as, for example, silicon. The method further includes the steps ofproviding a dislocation-blocking mask over the substrate and forming anopening in the mask extending to the surface of the substrate anddefined by at least one sidewall. The mask has a first dielectric layerdisposed over a second dielectric layer. At least a portion of thesidewall meets the surface of the substrate at an orientation angle to aselected crystallographic direction of the first semiconductor material.The method additionally includes selectively forming in the opening aregrowth region that contains a second semiconductor material. Theorientation angle and/or the image force causes threading dislocationsand/or other dislocation defects such as stacking faults, twinboundaries, or anti-phase boundaries in the regrowth region to decreasein density with increasing distance from the surface of the substrate.The method further includes selectively removing at least a portion ofthe first dielectric layer to expose at least a portion of the regrowthregion, thereby forming a semiconductor fin structure. A gate dielectricregion is provided over at least a portion of the fin structure. A gatecontact is disposed over the gate dielectric region. A source region anda drain region can be formed in the fin structure. The regrowth regioncan be planarized, for example, by chemical-mechanical polishing, priorto selectively removing at least a portion of the first dielectriclayer.

Also, in a further aspect, the invention contemplates a method offorming an optoelectronic device. The method begins with providing asubstrate that includes, or consists essentially of, a firstsemiconductor material, such as, for example, silicon. The methodfurther includes the steps of providing a dislocation-blocking mask overthe substrate and forming an opening in the mask extending to thesurface of the substrate. The opening is defined by at least onesidewall. At least a portion of the sidewall meets the surface of thesubstrate at an orientation angle to a selected crystallographicdirection of the first semiconductor material. The method additionallyincludes selectively depositing in the opening a first portion of theregrowth region that contains, or consists essentially of, a secondsemiconductor material, while in situ doping the second semiconductormaterial until thickness of the first portion approximates or exceedsthe predetermined distance. The orientation angle causes threadingdislocations and/or other dislocation defects such as stacking faults,twin boundaries, or anti-phase boundaries in the first portion tosubstantially terminate at or below a predetermined distance from thesurface of the substrate. The method continues with the step ofselectively depositing a second portion of the regrowth region thatcontains, or consists essentially of, a third semiconductor material, inthe opening to a thickness selected to achieve a predetermined level ofabsorption of incident light; and then forming a doped region in thesecond portion. In various embodiments, the method further includes,prior to providing a dislocation-blocking mask, the step of forming ap-type or n-type region in the substrate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer to the sameparts throughout the different views. Also, the drawings are notnecessarily to scale, emphasis instead generally being placed uponillustrating the principles of the invention. In the followingdescription, various embodiments of the present invention are describedwith reference to the following drawings, in which:

FIG. 1A depicts a schematic cross-sectional side view of a siliconsubstrate with a germanium layer formed thereon according to an“epitaxial necking” technique known in the art;

FIG. 1B is an XTEM image illustrating the semiconductor heterostructureof FIG. 1A;

FIGS. 2A-2C are schematic diagrams showing the three types ofcrystalline orientation for silicon;

FIGS. 3A-3B, 4A-4E, and 5A-5B depict schematic views of differentlattice-mismatched semiconductor heterostructures and structures forblocking dislocations therein, according to various embodiments of theinvention;

FIGS. 6A-6H and 7A-7C depict schematic cross-sectional side views of thelattice-mismatched semiconductor heterostructures having increasedactive area, according to various embodiments of the invention;

FIGS. 8-10 depict various applications of dislocation blockingtechniques for semiconductor devices, according to various embodimentsof the invention;

FIGS. 11-12 depict Ge or III-V photodetector integration into Sisubstrate according to particular embodiments of the invention; and

FIGS. 13A-13C depict semiconductor heterostructures employingdislocation-blocking techniques according to alternative embodiments ofthe invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with its various embodiments, the present inventioncontemplates fabrication of monolithic lattice-mismatched semiconductorheterostructures with Limited area regions having upper surfacessubstantially exhausted of threading dislocations and other dislocationdefects, as well as fabrication of semiconductor devices based on suchlattice-mismatched heterostructures.

Silicon (Si) is recognized as presently being the most ubiquitoussemiconductor for the electronics industry. Most of silicon that is usedto form silicon wafers is formed from single crystal silicon. Thesilicon wafers serve as the substrate on which CMOS devices are formed.The silicon wafers are also referred to as a semiconductor substrate ora semiconductor wafer. While described in connection with siliconsubstrates, however, the use of substrates that include, or consistessentially of, other semiconductor materials, is contemplated withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

In crystalline silicon, the atoms which make up the solid are arrangedin a periodic fashion. If the periodic arrangement exists throughout theentire solid, the substance is defined as being formed of a singlecrystal. If the solid is composed of a myriad of single crystal regionsthe solid is referred to as polycrystalline material. As readilyunderstood by skilled artisans, periodic arrangement of atoms in acrystal is called the lattice. The crystal lattice also contains avolume which is representative of the entire lattice and is referred toas a unit cell that is regularly repeated throughout the crystal. Forexample, silicon has a diamond cubic lattice structure, which can berepresented as two interpenetrating face-centered cubic Lattices. Thus,the simplicity of analyzing and visualizing cubic lattices can beextended to characterization of silicon crystals. In the descriptionherein, references to various planes in silicon crystals will be made,especially to the (100), (110), and (111) planes. These planes definethe orientation of the plane of silicon atoms relative to the principlecrystalline axes. The numbers {xyz} are referred to as Miller indicesand are determined from the reciprocals of the points at which thecrystal plane of silicon intersects the principle crystalline axes.Thus, FIGS. 2A-2C show three orientations of the crystal plane ofsilicon. In FIG. 2A, the crystal plane of silicon intersects the x-axisat 1 and never intersects the y or z-axis. Therefore, the orientation ofthis type of crystalline silicon is (100). Similarly, FIG. 2B shows(110) crystalline silicon and FIG. 2C shows (111) silicon. The (111) and(100) orientations are the two primary wafer orientations in commercialuse. Notably, for any given plane in a cubic crystal there are fiveother equivalent planes. Thus, the six sides of the cube comprising thebasic unit cell of the crystal are all considered (100) planes. Thenotation {xyz} refers to all six of the equivalent (xyz) planes.Throughout the description, reference will also be made to the crystaldirections, especially the <100>, <110> and <111>directions. These aredefined as the normal direction to the respective plane. Thus, the <100>direction is the direction normal to the (100) plane. The notation <xyz>refers to all six equivalent directions.

As discussed above, there is a need in the art for versatile andefficient methods of fabricating semiconductor heterostructures thatwould constrain substrate interface defects in a variety ofLattice-mismatched materials systems. One conventional techniquementioned above that addresses control of threading dislocationdensities in highly-mismatched deposited layers, termed “epitaxialnecking,” is applicable only to devices with relatively small lateraldimensions. Specifically, in the prior art, metal oxide semiconductor(“MOS”) transistors are typically fabricated on (100) silicon waferswith the gates oriented such that current flows parallel to the <110>directions. Thus, for a FET device built on a (100) Si wafer with devicechannel orientation aligning with the <110> direction, both the channelwidth and channel length should be small compared to the height of aepitaxial necking mask, in order for the dislocations in alattice-mismatched semiconductor Layer to terminate at a sidewall of themask on both directions. However, in modern CMOS circuits, the MOSFETdevice width often substantially exceeds the channel length, which, as aresult of CMOS scaling, is frequently very small. Accordingly, under theconventional necking approach, a number of dislocations will not beterminated at the sidewall of the mask in the direction of the channelwidth.

In contrast with the prior art approach of minimizing dislocationdefects, in its various embodiments, the present invention addresses thelimitations of known techniques, by utilizing greater thicknesses andlimited lateral areas of component semiconductor layers to producelimited-area regions having upper portions substantially exhausted ofdislocation defects. Referring to FIGS. 3A-3B, a substrate 310 isprovided that includes, or consists essentially of, a firstsemiconductor material, such as, for example, silicon. Adislocation-blocking mask 320 is disposed over the substrate. The maskhas an opening 325 extending to the surface of the substrate and definedby at least one sidewall 330. In various embodiments, the opening 325 isgenerally rectangular. The dislocation-blocking mask may include adielectric material, such as, for example, silicon dioxide or siliconnitride. At least a portion of the sidewall meets the surface of thesubstrate at an orientation angle a to a selected crystallographicdirection of the first semiconductor material. In addition, at least aportion of the sidewall is generally vertical, i.e. disposed at about 80to 120 degrees to the surface of the substrate, and, in a particularembodiment, substantially perpendicular to the surface of the substrate.

A regrowth Layer 340 that includes a second semiconductor material isdeposited in the opening. In one embodiment, the selectedcrystallographic direction of the first semiconductor material isaligned with direction of propagation of threading dislocations in theregrowth layer. In certain embodiments, the orientation angle rangesfrom about 30 to about 60 degrees, for example, is about 45 degrees tosuch crystallographic direction. The surface of the substrate may have(100), (110), or (111) crystallographic orientation. In someembodiments, the selected crystallographic direction is substantiallyaligned with a <110> crystallographic direction of the firstsemiconductor material.

In various embodiments, the first semiconductor material may include, orconsist essentially of, silicon or a silicon germanium alloy. The secondsemiconductor material may include, or consist essentially of, a groupII, a group III, a group IV, a group V, and/or a group VI element,and/or combinations thereof, for example, selected from the groupconsisting of germanium, silicon germanium, gallium arsenide, aluminumantimonide, indium aluminum antimonide, indium antimonide, indiumarsenide, indium phosphide, and gallium nitride.

The regrowth layer can be formed in the opening by selective epitaxialgrowth in any suitable epitaxial deposition system, including, but notlimited to, atmospheric-pressure CVD (APCVD), low- (or reduced-)pressure CVD (LPCVD), ultra-high-vacuum CVD (UHVCVD), by molecular beamepitaxy (MBE), or by atomic layer deposition (ALD). In the CVD process,selective epitaxial growth typically includes introducing a source gasinto the chamber. The source gas may include at least one precursor gasand a carrier gas, such as, for example hydrogen. The reactor chamber isheated, such as, for example, by RF-heating. The growth temperature inthe chamber ranges from about 300° C. to about 900° C. depending on thecomposition of the regrowth layer. The growth system also may utilizelow-energy plasma to enhance the layer growth kinetics.

The epitaxial growth system may be a single-wafer or multiple-waferbatch reactor. Suitable CVD systems commonly used for volume epitaxy inmanufacturing applications include, for example, EPI CENTURAsingle-wafer multi-chamber systems available from Applied Materials ofSanta Clara, Calif., or EPSILON single-wafer epitaxial reactorsavailable from ASM International based in Bilthoven, The Netherlands.

In some embodiments, the regrowth layer is compositionally graded, forexample, includes Si and Ge with a grading rate in the range of >5%Ge/μm to 100% Ge/μm, preferably between 5% Ge/μm and 50% Ge/μm, to afinal Ge content of between about 10% to about 100% While the overallgrading rate of the graded layer is generally defined as the ratio oftotal change in Ge content to the total thickness of the layer, a “localgrading rate” within a portion of the graded layer may be different fromthe overall grading rate. For example, a graded layer including a 1 μmregion graded from 0% Ge to 10% Ge (a local grading rate of 10% Ge/μm)and a 1 μm region graded from 10% Ge to 30% Ge (a local grading rate of20% Ge/μm) will have an overall grading rate of 15% Ge/μm. Thus, theregrowth layer may not necessarily have a linear profile, but maycomprise smaller regions having different local grading rates. Invarious embodiments, the graded regrowth layer is grown, for example, at600-1200° C. Higher growth temperatures, for example, exceeding 900° C.may be preferred to enable faster growth rates while minimizing thenucleation of threading dislocations. See, generally, U.S. Pat. No.5,221,413, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

In a particular embodiment, the first semiconductor material is siliconand the second semiconductor material is germanium. In this embodiment,threading dislocations 350 in the regrowth layer propagate along a <110>direction, and lie at an angle of 45-degrees to the surface of the firstsemiconductor material. The dislocation mask having a generallyrectangular opening is disposed over the substrate such that thesidewall of the opening is disposed at a 45-degree angle to a <100>direction and is substantially aligned with a <110> crystallographicdirection. As a result of such orientation of the opening, dislocationswill reach and terminate at the sidewalls of the opening in thedislocation-blocking mask at or below a predetermined distance H fromthe surface of the substrate, such that threading dislocations in theregrowth layer decrease in density with increasing distance from thesurface of the substrate. Accordingly, the upper portion of the regrowthlayer is substantially exhausted of threading dislocations, enablingformation of semiconductor devices having increased channel width.

In certain versions of this and other embodiments of the invention, thesidewall of the opening in the dislocation-blocking mask has a height atleast equal to a predetermined distance H from the surface of thesubstrate. In these embodiments, the opening is substantiallyrectangular and has a predetermined width W that is smaller than alength L of the opening. For example, the width W of the opening can beless than about 500 nm, and the length L of the opening can exceed eachof W and H. In some versions of these embodiments, the substrateconsists essentially of silicon and has a (100) crystallographicorientation, the orientation angle is about 45 degrees to propagation ofdislocations in the regrowth layer, and the predetermined distance H isat least W∫2. In other versions, the substrate consists essentially ofsilicon and has a (110) crystallographic orientation, the orientationangle is about 45 degrees, and the predetermined distance H is at leastW∫6/3. In still other versions, the substrate consists essentially ofsilicon and has a (111) crystallographic orientation, the orientationangle is about 45 degrees, and the predetermined distance H is at least2 W.

In various embodiments of the invention, blocking of the dislocations ispromoted both by geometry and orientation of the mask discussed above aswell as because of the ‘image force’ whereby dislocations are attractedto substantially vertical surfaces, as explained in more detail below.In many embodiments, the image force alone is sufficient to cause theupper portion of the regrowth layer to be substantially exhausted ofthreading dislocations and other dislocation defects.

As skilled artisans will readily recognize, a dislocation near a surfaceexperiences forces generally not encountered in the bulk of a crystal,and, in particular, is attracted towards a free surface because thematerial is effectively more compliant there and the dislocation energyis lower. See Hull & Bacon, Introduction to Dislocations, 4^(th)edition, Steel Times (2001). Image force is determined by materialproperties of the semiconductor being grown, as well as the distancebetween a given dislocation and the free surface. Thus, even when thedislocations have an orientation that does not favor trapping atsidewalls, the approach discussed above is still effective at certaindimensions because of the boundary forces that draw dislocations to freesurfaces in order to reduce the elastic energy of the crystal.Mathematically, these forces arise because the boundary conditions ofthe expressions for strain require strain components normal to a surfaceto be zero at that surface. Thus, force per unit of dislocation lengthon an edge dislocation, toward a vertical sidewall can be represented bythe formula:

$F_{I} = \frac{{Gb}^{2}}{4\pi \; d\mspace{14mu} ( {1 - \nu} )}$

where

-   F₁=Image force-   G=Shear modulus-   d=distance from free surface-   b=Burgers vector-   v=Poisson's ratio

Referring to FIGS. 4A-4B, as used herein, the term “60° dislocation”refers to a dislocation for which the angle between the Burgers vectorand the dislocation line is 60°. These dislocations typically form indiamond-cubic or zincblende lattice-mismatched systems where the strainis relatively low (e.g. <2%). In the absence of forces on threads (whichcan come from other dislocations nearby or from a free surface nearby)they rise from the substrate surface at a 45° angle in <110> directions.However, when viewed from above (normal to the surface) they appear tolie in <100> directions.

Experimentally, it has been shown that for the case of germanium onsilicon (4% mismatch) dislocations within approximately 300 nm of a SiO₂sidewall are trapped. This is understood to be due to the influence ofthe image force. The angle between these dislocations and the sidewallappears to range between approximately 45-55°.

The relevant material constants for Ge are:

G=4.1e11 dyne/cm²

v=0.26; and

b=3.99 Å

Based on the above formula and the experimental observation that ford≦300 nm dislocations in Ge on Si are bent toward an SiO₂ sidewall, theforce necessary to bend a dislocation in a cubic semiconductor crystaltoward a free surface is approximately 2.3 dyne/cm. Thus, distance fromfree surface d for other materials can be estimated with certain degreeof accuracy based on their known values for G, v, and b. For example, bythese calculations:

For GaAs d=258 nm

For InP d=205 nm

For AlSb d=210 nm

For InSb d=164 nm

Referring to FIG. 4C, for full trapping, the hole or trench lateraldimension w is preferably less than or equal to approximately 2*d, whilethe vertical dimension h is preferably at least approximately d, where dis calculated discussed above. These criteria are expected to besubstantially independent of the orientation of the boundary of thesidewall and the substrate surface. Thus, in various embodiments of theinvention, dislocations in the lower portion of the regrowth layer aretrapped by employing a dislocation-blocking mask with an elongatedopening, e.g. a trench, having a width calculated as discussed above andoriented without any regard for the direction of propagation ofdislocations in the regrowth layer.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4D and used herein, the term “90° dislocation”refers to a dislocation for which the angle between the Burgers vectorand the dislocation line is 90°. These dislocations primarily form inmismatched systems where the strain is relatively high (e.g. >2%). Inthe absence of forces on threading dislocation (which can come fromother dislocations nearby or from a free surface nearby) they rise fromthe substrate surface at a 90° angle in <100> directions. Thus, thesedislocations can be trapped most optimally by using adislocation-blocking mask with slanted, rather than vertical sidewalls,as shown in FIG. 4E.

The following summarizes mechanisms for trapping dislocations indifferent kind of diamond-cubic or zincblende semiconductorheterostructures:

1. Low mismatch, low image force

-   -   60° dislocations predominate    -   Threads lie in <110> directions, rising from surface at 45°    -   Best approach for trapping dislocations is to rely on        appropriate orientation of sidewalls and appropriate        dimensioning of openings, as described above in connection with        FIGS. 3A-3B;

2. Low mismatch, high image force

-   -   60° dislocations predominate    -   Threads bend toward free substantially vertical surfaces    -   Best approach for trapping dislocations is described above in        connection with FIGS. 4A-4C;

3. High mismatch, high image force

-   -   90° dislocations predominate    -   Threads bend toward free substantially vertical surfaces    -   Best approach for trapping dislocations is described above in        connection with FIGS. 4A-4C; and

4. High mismatch, low image force

-   -   90° dislocations predominate    -   Threads lie in <100> directions, rising from surface at 90°    -   Best approach for trapping dislocations is described above in        connection with FIGS. 4D-4E

Hexagonal semiconductors, such as the III-nitride (III-N) materials, areof great interest for high-power high-speed electronics andLight-emitting applications. For epitaxy of hexagonal semiconductorssuch as III-nitrides on Si, the (111) surface of Si is commonlypreferred over the (100). This is because the (111) surface of Si ishexagonal (even though Si is a cubic crystal). This makes a bettertemplate for hexagonal crystal growth than the cubic (100) face.However, as mentioned above, epitaxial necking approach discussed aboveis less effective in these applications, because the threadingdislocations in the hexagonal semiconductors disposed over thelattice-mismatched Si (111) substrates may not be effectively confinedby the vertical sidewalls because the threading dislocations in suchmaterials typically have a different orientation relative to thesubstrate, compared to the more commonly used cubic semiconductors, suchas Si, Ge, and GaAs. For example, as described above in connection withFIG. 4E, for certain surface orientations of substrate and crystallinestructure of lattice-mismatched regrowth region, the threading defectstend to propagate perpendicular to the substrate, which may not favortrapping by vertical sidewalls of the dislocation-blocking mask. This isthe case when GaN is grown on the (100) surface of Si. In such a case,in some embodiments, the angle of the sidewalls of the opening can beslanted relative to the substrate, as shown in FIG. 4E such thatvertically propagating defects intersect the angled sidewalls.

In other embodiments, the surface of the underlying substrate itselfexposed in the opening is configured to enable confinement of thethreading dislocations. Referring to FIG. 5A, after thedislocation-blocking mask is disposed over the Si (100) substrate and anopening is defined therethrough, an etch that is selective to the (111)crystallographic plane of Si, for example, a KOH solution, is applied tothe portion of the substrate exposed at the bottom of the seed window toexpose (111) surfaces. A lattice-mismatched semiconductor material isthen deposited in the opening over the substrate, and the epitaxialdeposition continues such that a heteroepitaxial region is grown overthe material disposed in the opening, laterally expanding over the mask.Because of the configuration of the underlying surface, orientation ofthe threading dislocations in the heteroepitaxial region is atapproximately 45° to the surface of the substrate, facilitating trappingof the dislocation by substantially vertical sidewalls of the mask, asshown in FIG. 5B. Then, if small areas of hexagonal semiconductormaterial are desired for device active areas, the heteroepitaxialovergrowth regions expanding from the individual openings can beplanarized (e.g. via CMP), to be substantially co-planar with theadjacent insulator areas. Alternatively, if a large area is desired,growth can proceed until neighboring regions coalesce, followedoptionally by planarization of the resulting structure. In the lattercase, because lateral growth rates of hexagonal semiconductor can bedramatically increased over growth rate normal to the surface employingvarious known approaches, these semiconductor materials afford processflexibility not available with cubic semiconductors grown on (100)surfaces. Specifically, differential growth rates of these materialsallows for widely-spaced seed trenches; for example, spacing may be fivetimes trench width or even greater, offering a substantial advantageover closely-spaced seed trenches, if the defects which are known toform when epitaxial growth fronts coalesce cannot be substantiallyeliminated.

FIGS. 6A-6F depicts schematic cross-sectional side views of thelattice-mismatched semiconductor heterostructures having increasedsurface area according to various embodiments of the invention.Specifically, as discussed in more detail below, the area of the upperportion of the lattice-mismatched heterostructure substantiallyexhausted of threading dislocations is increased, compared to theembodiments described above with reference to FIGS. 3A-3B. For example,as described in more detail below, in some embodiments, the opening inthe dislocation-blocking mask has a variable width. In other versions,the sidewall of the opening in the dislocation-blocking mask includes afirst portion disposed proximal to the surface of the substrate, and asecond portion disposed above the first portion. A height of the firstportion can be at least equal to a predetermined distance H from thesurface of the substrate, where the threading dislocations terminate atthe sidewall of the opening in the dislocation-blocking mask at or belowthe distance H. In some versions of these embodiments, the first portionof the sidewall can be substantially parallel to the second portion.Also, in some versions, the second portion of the sidewall is flaredoutwardly.

In many of the embodiments described below, a substrate 510 includes, orconsists essentially of, silicon. The regrowth layer includes, orconsists essentially of, a semiconductor material that is one of a groupII, a group III, a group IV, a group V, and/or a group VI elements,and/or combinations thereof, for example, selected from the groupconsisting of germanium, silicon germanium, gallium arsenide, aluminumantimonide, indium aluminum antimonide, indium antimonide, indiumarsenide, indium phosphide and gallium nitride. A dislocation-blockingmask 520 having an opening therein is disposed over the substrate. Thedislocation-blocking mask may include a dielectric material, such as,for example, silicon dioxide or silicon nitride. At least a portion ofthe sidewall meets the surface of the substrate at an orientation anglea to a selected crystallographic direction of the first semiconductormaterial. A regrowth layer 540 that includes a second semiconductormaterial is deposited in the opening. In various embodiments, theselected crystallographic direction of the first semiconductor materialis aligned with direction of propagation of threading dislocations inthe regrowth layer. In various embodiments, the orientation angle rangesfrom about 30 to about 60 degrees, for example, is about 45 degrees. Asmentioned above, in many embodiments of the invention, blocking of thedislocations is promoted by geometry and orientation of the maskdiscussed above and/or the ‘image force.’

Referring to FIG. 6A, in one embodiment, the dislocation-blocking maskis formed by depositing a first low-temperature oxide layer 521 havingthickness h1 over the substrate. The thickness h1 is selected to be atleast equal to the distance from the surface of the substrate at whichthe threading dislocations (and/or other dislocation defects such asstacking faults, twin boundaries, or anti-phase boundaries) terminate atthe sidewall of the opening in the dislocation-blocking mask, asdiscussed above. A first aperture having a diameter d1 or a first trenchhaving a width w1, both the width w1 and diameter d1 being smaller thanthe thickness h1, are formed in the layer 521 by a conventionalmasking/etching technique. After the mask is stripped, a secondlow-temperature oxide layer 522 having a thickness h2 is deposited overthe layer 521. Then, a second aperture of diameter d2 or a second trenchhaving a width w2 is formed in the layer 522 by a conventionalmasking/etching technique, such that w1<w2 (or d1<d2). After the mask isstripped, the regrowth layer of second semiconductor material isdeposited in the first and second apertures or in first and secondtrenches by selective epitaxy, according to any of the techniquesdisclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0045499A byLangdo et al., incorporated herein by reference. As discussed above,following deposition, threading dislocations and/or other dislocationdefects substantially terminate in the first aperture (or in the firsttrench) at or below thickness h1. As a result, the regrowth layerportion having thickness h2 that is substantially exhausted of threadingdislocations is obtained with an upper surface that is larger comparedto the embodiments described above with reference to FIGS. 3A-3B.

Referring to FIG. 6B, in another embodiment, an overgrowth layer 555that includes the second semiconductor material is deposited over theregrowth layer 540 and over a portion of the dislocation-blocking mask520 adjacent to the regrowth layer. At least a portion of the overgrowthlayer may be deposited as non-crystalline (i.e. amorphous) material andcan be crystallized subsequently, for example by an anneal step at atemperature higher than the deposition temperature. Thus, in thisembodiment, crystallization of the overlayer is used to create crystalmaterial in the overlayer regions over the regrowth layer, which isamorphous upon deposition. The arrows in FIG. 6B indicate a crystallizedregion expanding outward from the opening in the dislocation blockingmask, as amorphous material which may form at least a portion of theovergrowth layer 555 is crystallized.

Referring to FIG. 6C, in yet another embodiment, deposition of theregrowth layer in the opening of the dislocation-blocking mask isfollowed by a step of lateral epitaxial deposition to increase theuseful surface area. It may also utilize the higher growth rates typicalof (100) surfaces compared to (110) or (111) surface to increase lateralovergrowth in this embodiment. For example, the overgrowth regions canbe used as source/drain areas which typically have less stringentmaterial quality requirement than the channel material.

Referring to FIG. 6D, in still another embodiment, the useful upper areaof the regrowth layer 540 is increased by gradually increasing the sizeof the regrowth region. Similar to the embodiment described above withreference to FIG. 6A, the dislocation-blocking mask includes twolayers—a first layer having thickness h1, and a second layer havingthickness h2. The thickness h1 is selected to be at least equal to thedistance from the surface of the substrate at which the threadingdislocations and/or other dislocation defects terminate at the sidewallof the opening in the dislocation-blocking mask, as discussed above.That is, a first aperture having a diameter d1 or a first trench havinga width w1, both the width w1 and diameter d1 being smaller than thethickness h1, are formed in the layer 521 by a conventionalmasking/etching technique. After the mask is stripped, a second lowtemperature oxide layer 522 having a thickness h2 is deposited over thelayer 521. Then, a second aperture of diameter d2 or a second trenchhaving a width w2 is formed in the layer 522 by a conventionalmasking/etching technique, such that w1<w2 (or d1<d2). In contrast tothe embodiment depicted in FIG. 6A, however, the width w2 of the secondtrench is gradually increased such that the sidewall of the trench, i.e.the opening in the layer 522, gradually flares outwardly. This effectcan be achieved, for example, by conventional masking/etching techniqueswherein the etchant and masking material are chosen such that themasking material is eroded laterally during the etching process,gradually exposing more of the dislocation-blocking mask below,resulting in an opening in the dislocation-blocking mask that flaresoutward. For example, the masking material could be conventionalphotoresist and the etchant could be a mixture of the gases CF₄ and H₂,used in a conventional RIE system. After the mask is stripped, theregrowth layer of second semiconductor material is deposited byselective epitaxy in the opening defined by the layers 521, 522. Asdiscussed above, following deposition, threading dislocations (and/orother dislocation defects such as stacking faults, twin boundaries, oranti-phase boundaries) substantially terminate in the first aperture (orin the first trench) at or below thickness h1. Thus, in this embodiment,the dislocations are terminated in the first portion of the regrowthregion at or below thickness h1, and then the regrowth layer becomesLarger and Larger gradually, allowing for high-quality epitaxial growthwith large surface area for Large device fabrication.

Referring to FIG. 6E, in an alternative version of the embodimentdiscussed above in connection with FIG. 6D, a dislocation-blocking maskhaving an opening with outward slanted sidewalls, i.e. the structurethat is substantially narrower at the bottom than the top, can be formedwith only one lithography step, followed by spacer deposition and etch.This technique is generally more economical and may overcomelithographic alignment problems, or lithographic minimum featurelimitations, inherent with the lithography-and-etch approach. Thespacers can be formed from the same or different material than theinsulator layer. For either case, selective epitaxial growth followscreation of the opening or trench.

FIGS. 6F-6H show further techniques to increase the surface area.Referring to FIG. 6F (as well as, again, to FIG. 6B), in one embodiment,silicon nitride is utilized instead of silicon dioxide as a dielectricmaterial for the dislocation-blocking mask 520 that defines two openings535. After the regrowth regions 540 are epitaxially grown in theopenings, overgrowth regions 560 are deposited thereover. Using siliconnitride facilitates merging two overgrown regions on the surface ofdislocation-blocking mask 520 layer with fewer defects, resulting inlarger surface area. Referring to FIG. 6G, in one particular version ofthe embodiment of FIG. 6F, a layer of second semiconductor material 570is deposited over the substrate 510 before forming thedislocation-blocking mask 520 thereon, such that the regrowth regions540 merge at the top of the dislocation-blocking mask with pre-definedlattice spacing. This lattice spacing in the regrowth regions followsthe lattice spacing of the layer 570 and thus it has less latticemisalignment when two epitaxy structures merge. Referring to FIG. 6H, inanother version of the embodiment of FIG. 6F, the dislocation-blockingmask defines two or more closely spaced flared openings, such that ahorizontal top surface of the mask is minimized or, in certainimplementations, eliminated. In this version, the lateral overgrowthregion, often prone to defects, is negligible or altogether absent,thereby improving the quality of the resulting merged overgrowth region.

Further, referring to FIGS. 7A-7C, in some embodiments, the inventionfocuses on creating large active areas within the heteroepitaxial regionby a combination of epitaxial necking and ELO techniques, employing aself-assembled dislocation-blocking mask. Specifically, an dielectriclayer defining an array of openings therethrough can be formed usingself-assembly techniques, thereby avoiding traditional time-consuminglithography and etch approaches. For an example of how a self-assembledarray of vertical openings in an insulator layer could be created on aSi substrate, see an article by Wenchong Hu et al entitled “Growth ofwell-aligned carbon nanotube arrays on silicon substrates using porousalumina film as a nanotemplate,” published in Applied Physics Letters,Vol. 79, No. 19 (2001) and incorporated herein by reference, describinghow anodic oxidation of the aluminum can be used to create aself-assembled array of vertical openings similar to that shown in FIG.7A-7B, where the insulator is alumina (Al₂O₃). The process described byHu et at., however, leaves a small residual layer of alumina at thebottom of each hole. To remove this residual layer, an anisotropic dryetch (much higher etch rate normal to the wafer surface than parallel tothe wafer surface) could be performed, exposing the silicon which is the‘seed’ for subsequent epitaxial necking. Then, heteroepitaxial regionsare selectively grown within and out of the openings, at least untilresulting overgrowth regions coalesce. Depending on lateral dimensionsof the aperture, degree of mismatch, and rigidity of sidewall oxide,either plastic or elastic relaxation of the heteroepitaxial “pillars”may dominate. The resulting heteroepitaxial layer is then planarized(FIG. 7C), e.g. via CMP, and the active-area, substantially exhausted ofthreading dislocations and/or other dislocation defects is used fordevice fabrication.

FIGS. 8-10 depict various applications of dislocation-blockingtechniques according to various embodiments of the invention forfabrication of CMOS devices. FIG. 8 shows various device structuresdisposed over regrowth or overgrown regions fabricated according to theinvention, such as MOSFET devices including Ge, InGaAs, strained Ge/SiGeand other materials, or HEMT devices, e.g. including InGaAs. Thestarting substrate can be Si substrate or SOI/SSOI substrate. In oneexample, n-FET and p-FET digital devices are fabricated on a SSOIsubstrate, while RF/analog devices are fabricated over a Ge region grownover the Si substrate using the approaches discussed above. Byintegrating advanced materials into Si substrate, electron and holemobility can be enhanced significantly. In order to avoid thedeleterious effects of dislocations defects on such FET devices, thechannel, source, and drain region should be confined to an upper regionof regrowth or overgrown material which is substantially defect-free. Asdiscussed in detail above, blocking of the threading dislocations andother defects is promoted by geometry and orientation of the mask and/orthe image force. In many embodiments, the image force alone issufficient to cause the upper region of the regrowth or overgrownmaterial to be substantially exhausted of threading dislocations andother dislocation defects.

Furthermore, still referring to FIG. 8, a wide bandgap material whichwill suppress junction leakage (such as AlSb) can be used for initialgrowth, followed by a material with high electron mobility for the FETchannel (such as InAs). In this embodiment, preferably, the twosemiconductor materials have similar lattice constants, to reduce thepossibility of dislocations forming at the interface between them. Alsoin this embodiment, the growth of the wide bandgap material may befollowed by a planarization step so that its surface is substantiallyplanar with the top of the dislocation blocking mask; subsequently athin layer of the high-mobility material can be grown to accommodate theMOS channel. Preferably, the bottom of the FET junctions is disposedwithin the wide bandgap region to suppress junction leakage.

FIG. 9 depicts another application of the dislocation-blockingtechniques according to various embodiments of the invention in CMOS.This method allows the Ge/III-V necking technique to be used inrelatively large CMOS devices. When applying the dislocation-blockingtechnique in a CMOS device as in the embodiment of FIG. 8, the length ofdevice active region L_(active) should be small enough to satisfy theaspect ratio requirement discussed above. L_(active), which includessource/drain lengths as well, is, however, much larger than the devicechannel length Lg. The embodiment shown in FIG. 9 addresses a situationwhere Ge or GaAs growth is performed at a narrow channel region only;source/drain materials are then deposited separately. This approachallows for Ge or GaAs growth techniques to be applied to much largerdevices, for example, 90 nm node CMOS devices instead of 22 nm nodedevices. This channel-only Ge/III-V dislocation-blocking approach mayalso be combined with other desirable source/drain engineeringtechniques, such as raised source/drain techniques, Schottkysource/drain approaches, or the use of materials on the source/drainregion different from the material in the channel region forsource/drain dopant/conductivity optimization. The quasi source/drain“on-insulator” structure also reduces the junction capacitance. Properdeposition of source/drain materials may also introduce localized strainin the channel region for mobility enhancement purpose. The approachdiscussed above can be applied to pre-defined small channel regionsonly. The epitaxial deposition in the source/drain regions may bedefective, but as long as the dislocations terminate on the sidewalls ofthe narrow channel region, the defect density in source/drain isacceptable.

Besides the conventional planar MOSFETs, the dislocation-blockingtechnique of the invention can also be used to fabricate non-planarFETs. As mentioned above, blocking of the threading dislocations andother defects is promoted by geometry and orientation of the mask and/orthe image force. In many embodiments, the image force alone issufficient to cause the upper region of the regrowth or overgrownmaterial to be substantially exhausted of threading dislocations andother dislocation defects. FIG. 10A and 10B show body-tied finFETs ortri-gate transistor structures which takes the advantage of the verticalshape of the lattice-mismatched material. One exemplary method includesdepositing or growing an oxide layer, followed by depositing a nitridelayer, masking and etching a trench of width w<0.5 h; (the trenchorientation may be in a <110> direction, so all the threadingdislocations along <110> directions (which will lie at an angle of45-degrees to the surface of the first semiconductor material) willintersect sidewalls within the height of h); selectively growing Ge orIII-V in the trench; chemical-mechanical polishing to remove the portionof selective growth outside of the trench; selectively removing nitride,which results in fin structures; and then growing and/or depositinginsulator material around the fin structures; followed by depositing,masking and etching gate electrodes and ion implantation to createsource/drain regions. A second exemplary method includes depositing orgrowing an oxide layer, masking and etching a trench of width w<0.5 h;selectively growing Ge or III-V in the trench; chemical-mechanicalpolishing to remove the portion of selective growth outside of thetrench; selectively removing a portion of the oxide, which results infin structures; and then growing and/or depositing insulator materialaround the fin structures; followed by depositing, masking and etchinggate electrodes and ion implantation to create source/drain regions.

Besides FET devices, the dislocation-blocking techniques of theinvention can also be used to fabricate other types of devices, such asoptical devices. Referring to FIGS. 11-12, in some embodiments, Ge orIII-V photodetectors are integrated into a Si substrate using suchtechniques. In an exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 11, a lower contactis implanted on a Si substrate to form p+-type region; low-temperatureoxide is deposited; apertures or trenches are etched through thelow-temperature oxide Layer to explore the Si substrate; and Ge or III-Vmaterials are selectively grown on the apertures or trenches within-situ doping until past the defect regions (p-type). Further,epitaxial growth continues until the thickness is sufficient to allowfor desirable levels of absorption of incident light, and then the topLayer is implanted to form an n-type region. In another configuration,the light comes from the side (e.g. from in-plane waveguide) instead offrom the top, as shown in FIG. 12. This allows light detection to occurin-plane with the wafer surface and also to allow growth thickness to beindependent of absorption depth.

In various embodiments described above, the dislocation-blocking isperformed in a vertical direction. FIG. 13A shows an alternativeembodiment where the dislocation-blocking may conduct in a lateraldirection, for example from the source or drain region. Therefore, thedevice can be an SOI structure. In one embodiment, the gate oxide andgate stack can be formed first, before the dislocation-blocking growthunder the gate, using a channel-replacement-type process. This approachaddresses the self-alignment issue and any surface roughness issues.

FIG. 13B shows another method which allows dislocations be terminatedfor a large size epitaxial area. The method includes two steps ofepitaxial growth, which take different growth directions, so that thedislocations in one direction terminate at the sidewall during the firstepitaxial growth, and the dislocations in another direction, which mayhave large device dimensions, can terminate on the sidewall when theepitaxial growth changes the direction.

Conventional Ge/III-V necking forms crystal material in the verticaldirection. Therefore, when building planar MOS or finFET type devices onthat crystal, the device is typically a bulk-type or body-tied, not an“on-insulator” structure. Bulk-type of Ge or GaAs FET may exhibit largejunction leakage and poor short-channel effect control. One solution isto build the device vertically instead of parallel to horizontalsurface. FIG. 13C shows one embodiment of such structure: avertical-channel FET, which incorporates the benefits that a verticalFET has, for example, SCE control, better scalability, etc. Anotherapproach is to epitaxially grow an oxide layer that is lattice-matchedto the second semiconductor material during selective deposition of thesecond semiconductor material. As result, there is an oxide layer withinthe regrowth region underlying a portion thereof subsequently used fordevice fabrication, as discussed in more detail in co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/000,566 by Currie, incorporated herein byreference.

Other embodiments incorporating the concepts disclosed herein may beused without departing from the spirit of the essential characteristicsof the invention or the scope thereof. The foregoing embodiments aretherefore to be considered in all respects as only illustrative ratherthan restrictive of the invention described herein. Therefore, it isintended that the scope of the invention be only limited by thefollowing claims.

1. A semiconductor structure comprising: (a) a substrate having asurface and comprising a first semiconductor material; (b) adislocation-blocking mask disposed over the substrate, the mask having atrench extending to the surface of the substrate, the trench beingdefined by at least one sidewall, the sidewall having a height h atleast equal to a predetermined distance H from the surface of thesubstrate the trench being substantially rectangular and having apredetermined width W; and (c) a regrowth layer comprising a secondsemiconductor material formed in the trench, wherein a ratio of theheight of the trench to the width of the trench is >0.5 and dislocationdefects in the regrowth layer terminate at the sidewall of the trench ator below predetermined distance H.
 2. (canceled)
 3. The structure ofclaim 33 wherein the first semiconductor material is non-polar, thesecond semiconductor material is polar, and the orientation angle causesanti-phase boundaries in the regrowth layer to decrease in density withincreasing distance from the surface of the substrate.
 4. A structurecomprising: (a) a substrate having a surface and comprising a firstsemiconductor material; (b) a dislocation-blocking mask disposed overthe substrate, the mask having an opening extending to the surface ofthe substrate, the opening being defined by at least one sidewall, thesidewall having a height h at least equal to a predetermined distance Hfrom the surface of the substrate, the opening having a predeterminedwidth W; and (c) a regrowth layer comprising a second semiconductormaterial formed in the opening, wherein the opening in thedislocation-blocking mask is characterized by a variable width, a ratioof the height of the trench to a narrowest width of the opening is >0.5.and dislocation defects in the regrowth layer terminate at the sidewallof the trench at or below predetermined distance H. 5-7. (canceled) 8.The structure of claim 1 wherein the first semiconductor materialcomprises silicon or a silicon germanium alloy.
 9. The structure ofclaim 1 wherein the second semiconductor material is selected from thegroup consisting of a group II, a group III, a group IV, a group V, anda group VI element, and combinations thereof.
 10. (canceled)
 11. Thestructure of claim 1 wherein the crystallographic direction is alignedwith at least one direction of propagation of the dislocation defects inthe regrowth layer.
 12. (canceled)
 13. The structure of claim 1 whereinthe surface of the substrate has a crystallographic orientation selectedfrom the group consisting of: (100), (110), and (111).
 14. (canceled)15. The structure of claim 1 wherein the dislocation-blocking maskcomprises a dielectric material.
 16. (canceled)
 17. The structure ofclaim 1, further comprising an overgrowth layer comprising the secondsemiconductor material disposed over the regrowth layer and over atleast a portion of the dislocation-blocking mask.
 18. (canceled)
 19. Asemiconductor device formed over a substrate having a surface andincluding a first semiconductor material, the device comprising: (a) adislocation-blocking mask disposed over the substrate, the mask havingan opening extending to the surface of the substrate and defined by atleast one sidewall, a ratio of a height of the opening to a width of theopening being >0.5; and (b) a regrowth region formed in the opening, theregrowth region including: i. a first portion comprising a secondsemiconductor material and disposed proximal to the surface of thesubstrate, dislocation defects in the regrowth region substantiallyterminating in the first portion; and ii. a second portion disposedabove the first portion the second portion comprising a thirdsemiconductor material; (c) a channel region disposed in the secondportion of the regrowth region; and (d) a source region and a drainregion, the channel region being disposed therebetween.
 20. The deviceof claim 19 wherein the first semiconductor material comprises silicon.21. The device of claim 19 wherein the semiconductor substrate comprises(a) a silicon wafer; (b) an insulating layer disposed thereon; and (c) astrained semiconductor layer disposed on the insulating layer.
 22. Thedevice of claim 21 wherein the strained semiconductor layer comprisessilicon or germanium.
 23. (canceled)
 24. The device of claim 19 whereinthe semiconductor substrate comprises: (a) a silicon wafer; (b) acompositionally uniform relaxed Si_(1-x)Ge_(x), layer deposited thereon;and (c) a strained silicon layer deposited on the relaxedSi_(1-x)Ge_(x), layer.
 25. (canceled)
 26. (canceled)
 27. The device ofclaim 19, further comprising a lattice-mismatched layer disposed betweenat least a portion of the substrate and the dislocation-blocking mask,the lattice-mismatched layer comprising a second semiconductor materialand being at least partially relaxed.
 28. (canceled)
 29. The device ofclaim 19 wherein at least one of the second semiconductor material andthe third semiconductor material is selected from the group consistingof a group II, a group III, a group IV, a group V, and a group VIelement, and combinations thereof.
 30. (canceled)
 31. The device ofclaim 19 wherein the first portion of the regrowth region comprisessilicon germanium and the second portion of the regrowth regioncomprises a layer of strained germanium.
 32. The device of claim 19wherein the first portion of the regrowth region comprises indiumphosphide and the second portion of the regrowth region comprises alayer of indium gallium arsenide disposed over a layer of indiumaluminum arsenide.
 33. The structure of claim 1, wherein at least aportion of the sidewall meets the surface of the substrate at anorientation angle to a selected crystallographic direction of the firstsemiconductor material, and the orientation angle causes the dislocationdefects in the regrowth layer to decrease in density with increasingdistance from the surface of the substrate.
 34. The device of claim 19,wherein a width of the opening is less than 1 micrometer.
 35. The deviceof claim 19, wherein a portion of the sidewall meets the surface of thesubstrate at an orientation angle to a selected crystallographicdirection of the first semiconductor material.